Only a couple of months into the 2024 Major League Baseball season there have been uniform malfunctions, an illegal betting scandal, and overall some great ball playing.
March 28, 2024 marked MLB’s opening day for the 2024 professional baseball season. Even though most teams played their first official games on that Thursday, two teams were already underway. The Los Angeles Dodgers faced the San Diego Padres in the Seoul Series for a two game set on March 20-21, an interesting matchup that took place in Seoul, South Korea. The Dodgers won the first game and the Padres took the second.
The MLB has been hosting games outside of the U.S. and Canada in order to grow the league’s audience and overall love for the sport. This year, four international series were scheduled. The first one took place in the Dominican Republic during Spring Training, the Seoul Series which marked the start of regular season play, the Mexico City Series which happened at the end of April, and the London Series which will be held in the beginning of June.
Not only was the sport making headlines for being in a new location, but also for an illegal gambling scandal involving Japanese two-way player Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. Mizuhara has agreed to plead guilty after stealing close to $17 million from Ohtani.
Ohtani released a statement on the matter after the scandal came to light, it has been translated and Ohtani expressed his emotions as “I’m very saddened and shocked that someone I trusted has done this.”
As the Ohtani and interpreter story continues to unfold, Ohtani has continued to play in games. Several people question Ohtani’s innocence and whether or not he knew what Mizuhara was doing this whole time. Ohtani is currently batting .329 with 13 home runs and 35 RBIs in his first season with the Dodgers. The two-way player is still recovering from Tommy John surgery and won’t be on the mound this season.
Last year, the league changed a couple of rules that at first were rather hit or miss with fans, like the pitch clock. Now, only a year after implementing the timer, there has been an increase of starting pitchers on the IL. This year the league made a slight adjustment to the pitch clock, shortening the time when runners are on base from 20 to 18 seconds.
This year, there were a couple of minor rule changes as well, but one of the largest changes was with the noticeable difference in quality of uniforms. During spring training, players faced issues of see-through pants and fans were unhappy with the design of the lettering on the back of the jerseys. Into a couple months of the season, there have been more struggles surrounding the new uniform company, including the fact that teams are missing shipments of certain jerseys. It’s been apparent that the uniform quality has significantly dropped this season as players rip their pants sliding the bases which is something that did not happen as often in previous seasons. Unfortunately, players will have to endure the inadequate uniforms until the end of the season. The MLB has announced they will be altering the uniforms again, but the change won’t go into effect until next year.
Although the uniforms have been an uncomfortable change, lots of players are still making a name for themselves on the mound or behind the plate. MLB’s top pitching prospect and second overall, Paul Skenes, debuted on May 11 for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ matchup against the Chicago Cubs. In just three starts, Skenes has a 2.25 ERA and 21 strikeouts.
MLB’s top prospect overall, Jackson Holliday of the Baltimore Orioles made his debut this season as well. Holliday struggled to make adjustments against Major League pitching and was slashing .059/.111/.170. He only had one RBI and 2 hits for 34 at bats before getting sent back to AAA Norfolk. Currently in Norfolk, Holiday is slashing .269/.428/.469.
With summer approaching, baseball begins to heat up even more. The AL East is close like always with the Yankees currently 1.5 games ahead of the Orioles. The AL Central is led by the Guardians and leading the AL West is the Seattle Mariners. The Phillies are atop the NL East, Brewers lead the NL Central, and the Dodgers are dominating the NL West.
